How to maximize your tips without charging the customer more money:
1) Get a credit card that gives you cash back towards all purchases. I have one that gives me 1% back. Everyone that pays cash, I put it on my credit card and keep the cash. I get an additional 1% of their check.
2) Sign up for a service like www.rewardsnetwork.com (formally idine.com); they'll give you 20% of the check at certain places when you pay with a registered credit card. Or you can register your card at upromise.com and get 10% back towards your kid’s education.
3) If the restaurant at uses coupons, keep a shit load of coupons around.
4) If the restaurant has a reward program, claim the rewards for yourself if the customer doesn’t claim them.
Here is an example: Let’s pretend that you give a customer a $50 bill and they tip you 18%, or $9. If you did nothing, you’d be left with just $9.
Now, let’s say you use my method. You take there $59.00 cash ($50 bill plus $9 tip) and put it in your pocket. You then apply a 10% off coupon that you clipped out of the newspapers and apply it to their bill. 10% off the original bill of $50 is an extra $5 bucks for you. Now, your take is up to $14.
Let’s take it two steps further. You charge $45 to cover their bill on your credit card. Your credit card is a dividends reward card that gives you 1% back on all purchases. Plus, you’ve registered your credit card with idine and will get back up to 20% at certain restaurants (up to a certain max each month). You get back an additional 1% dividend from your credit card, or 45¢. Plus you get 20% dividend from idine, or $4.50. That adds an additional $4.95 to your total take, leaving you with a grand total of $18.95. You’ve more then doubled your original tip of just $9.
Of course, you must deposit the $45 charged to your credit card into your checking account so that you can pay off your credit card every month.
